Starting a new job is a bit like taking a trip. You do the research online, check out TripAdvisor, book your tickets, pre-book your seats, board the plane and hopefully everything goes well and you enjoy your vacation destination! This blog will go through the onboarding process for new employees in such way that employers […]

It’s been hard to miss the Olympics, and face it, who would have wanted to miss the exhilarating, elegant and extreme gold medal performances of the 2014 Sochi Olympics! Canadian athletes came out on top of the podium in multiple events including the nail-biting women’s gold medal hockey final and Alex Biloudeau’s flawless repeat gold medal run in moguls skiing. Russia had some incredible performances in figure skating from both an aging star and an emerging one in the team skate event. Both Canada and Russia performed very well in the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

At this time of year, we are reminded of many things – one of which is that traditions are everywhere… culturally, personally, in-business and life-at-large. Even though traditions are tremendously important to us and for our families, we sometimes need to break the old, and create new! Which is what I suggest with the way you might have been measuring, tracking and managing your recruitment and talent acquisition activities.

When I hear people talk about top talent, I get reminded of the elusive (and sometimes voodoo) experiences that I had in the past in corporate environments when identifying top talent.
I have to say, it always conjures up memories both good and bad.

Talent Acquisition is no stranger to data and metrics and the most progressive of leaders in this space are taking advantage of the wave of workforce analytics to get results – for their organizations and for themselves. While the past was focused on using analytics primarily to monitor the efficiency of the recruitment process, Talent Acquisition is now involving itself in measuring the effectiveness of its efforts. Connecting the activities of Talent Acquisition to business outcomes is something every Talent Acquisition leader should be working towards.

It is annual performance review time for many organizations! The actual performance review may be a simple rating sheet, a multi-page document, a massive competency check-lists or an online 360 review. Whatever the format of your reviews, it is your entire performance appraisal process, which includes the manager & employee performance appraisal meetings that determines the effectiveness of your appraisal system for your organizational development goals. Scott Adams has dedicated a multitude of Dibert strips mocking performance reviews (scroll to end of article) but for organizations today, performance management still matters.

You’ve probably heard by now that some employers in the United States have come up with the idea of asking prospective employees for their Facebook passwords so they can take a closer look at what these candidates are all about. Is it legal? Is it ethical? Is it fair?

Is there an overachiever at your workplace? Do you have trouble understanding and working with them? High achievers, sometimes known as workaholics, have been found to be secretly plagued by fears and self-doubts and prone to resist change. Though it is important to be hard-working and have a drive to achieve in order to be successful, it can get out of control.

To achieve the best of both worlds it is important to align your data with common standards that are most likely to provide the opportunity for like with like comparison and like with unlike comparison. This creates the capability to compare in a way that confirms your performance or compare in a way that pushes your performance. As with all data and analytic practices the right thing to do is the one which moves the performance needle for your organization. The more HR can do this AND demonstrate this the better.

I’ve caved. The end of my phone contract has been looming large, and as I pondered my options, somehow I thought, “I’d really like to be more connected.” So I’m ditching my two-year-old, decidedly not smart, flip phone and getting an iPhone—and a data plan. Soon I’ll be able to tweet and update my Facebook status and share photos wherever I am. And I’m afraid.

The beginning of a new year is the usual time for owners, managers, HR and payroll professionals to work on their compensation planning. The objective of compensation planning is determining what to pay employees to entice them to continue to work for your company.

The common meaning of multi-tasking is doing more than one thing at once, like walking and chewing gum. Do you hold several conversations at the same time—on the phone, on Facebook and in person? Do you listen to music or the radio or watch TV or eat lunch while you check your favourite blogs and watch your auctions on eBay? Do you have several work projects on the go, spread across your real and virtual desktops? Is it hard to keep track?